"Whitey on the Moon"

An excerpt from the Washington Post -

Why ‘First Man’ prominently features Gil Scott-Heron’s spoken-word poem ‘Whitey on the Moon’
By Sonia Rao

Chazelle and Singer executed the idea by depicting both the perseverance of those in the space program and the passionate feelings of those opposed to its cost. A memorable scene captures this dissonance by juxtaposing the Apollo 1 disaster, in which a fire killed three astronauts during preflight testing, with people protesting NASA’s program — all set to a rousing reading of musician and poet Gil Scott-Heron’s work “Whitey on the Moon.”

“A rat done bit my sister Nell, with whitey on the moon,” Leon Bridges, who plays Scott-Heron, recites over a drum beat. “Her face and arms begin to swell, and whitey’s on the moon. I can’t pay no doctor bills, but whitey’s on the moon. Ten years from now I’ll be payin' still, while whitey’s on the moon.” (Click here to read the full poem.)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2018/10/13/why-first-man-prominently-features-gil-scott-herons-spoken-word-poem-whitey-moon/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.b0d49a834a2a